Waimea United Church of Christ

Luke 9:1-17“Mission on a Mission”

Have you
ever noticed how much more fun it is to do things together with other people?
In fact, the more the merrier! We all love coming together to have a good time
in each other’s company. We here in the church even gather on Tuesday nights
just to play games, eat, and chat. We do it just to be with one another. There
is no Bible study or worship involved. So, why do we have it at the church?
Isn’t the church just for that one purpose of doing Godly things? Yes, but just
coming together is also a godly thing. Likewise when people separate and stay
home alone, that can be an ungodly thing.

Oh, I
recall some months back having to replace a leaking pipe in the cemetery. Many times
I have made such a repair by myself without any help. This time, however, James
was aware of the needed repair and asked if I would not mind some company to
make the repair go faster. So, on one Saturday morning we met and started
digging. Just then David Somers called me on my cell. He said he had nothing to
do and wondered if there was anything at the church that he could attend. I
told him that we were just digging out an old pipe to be replaced. He was SO
excited. He threw some shovels in his truck and was there in under five
minutes! With so many eager hands the work was done in under an hour. We all
looked at each other wondering why the fine fellowship had to end already!

Now, all of
this comes back to the very first word of our scripture for today. Do you see
it there? What is it? “Then.” That is not the first word in the Greek at all!
The first word is “call-together” in the Greek. It is one word in that
language. That is what Jesus first did; he called everyone together. Well, not
everyone. It seems he called just the twelve disciples together. So, whatever
was going to happen, would happen with “togetherness” and a sense of “call.”

This is
important because we sometimes get a little lazy in our understanding of
mission. We think sometimes that “mission” is what missionaries alone do. The
missionary is supposed to go out alone into the far corners of creation to
spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. No, we are supposed to always be doing
God’s mission in this world together.

When Helen
and I were sent to Thailand as missionaries, we were “commissioned” at my
original home church in Los Angeles. What should it mean to be “co-missioned”
other than to be in mission with other “co-others.” We were coordinated with
mission with all of the others in that church. Indeed, through the One Great
Hour of Sharing, the offering that we take today, we were coordinated with
thousands of churches throughout America. It is a wonder to feel that kind of
support of being with one another while sharing the gospel!

The next
thing we read after Jesus called the 12 together is that he gave them all power
to cast our demons and heal people. What I find intriguing in this is that Luke
purposefully mentions that 12 were given these powers for their mission
together. ALL twelve! Judas Iscariot,
too? He was given power to cast out demons? Let us look at Luke 22:3, “Then
Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve. . . .”

What
happened? Judas had the power to cast out Satan, given to him by Jesus, but in
the end he did not use that power and made a deal with the devil instead. Never
give into the devil. You have the power to cast that guy out!

We have
also been given the power that Jesus gave his disciples. This is explained in
Acts 6:6 in which the original disciples laid hands on seven more men and gave
them that power to do miracles as well. In other words, that same power that
Jesus gave to the original twelve disciples is still being passed down to our
generation of believers and beyond.

The
missionaries are ready to go. They have been called together and empowered by
Jesus. The next commandment will send them on their way: “Leave everything
behind; take nothing with you!” Jesus commands. Why?

Again, when
my wife and I were missionaries in Thailand, we came to know another
missionary: Let’s just call him “Tex” because that is where he was from. He
told us about his plan along with others from his church to reach out to a
small tribal village up in the hills close to the border with Burma.

Now, so
that you here today can understand some of my misgivings, Tex was in language
school with us. He started with us, that is, but he did not finish the course.
He became frustrated with Thai and decided he did not have to speak the local
tongue in order to share the Gospel. Nor did he think it at all necessary to
learn the language of tribe he was going to visit in the hills either.

He
explained to us that he would be going with a large screen television, DVD
player, and of course a high-powered electrical generator to serve the power
needs of the mission. He wasalso going
to bring in cookies and other sweets because this tribe apparently had never
had sugar available to them. Wow! Electricity, videos, and a sugar high! All of
this was to be carried by elephant into the village since there really were no
roads even so far up in the hills. We had to ask if at least the video they
were going to show was in the language of the village. Nope. Was it at least in
Thai, assuming that someone in the village could translate it. Nope.

They did
it. They brought the gospel to that village. Revved up the generator and passed
out the eats. Everybody sat there watching television under the stars. I wish I
could have been there! Not for when they did this particular outreach, but for
that time right after when they packed up those elephants and took the
electricity and video equipment back out of the village. Sometimes we just end
up sharing the wrong message!

Jesus told
his disciples to go out WITH ONLY the message of the coming Kingdom of God.
Leave everything else behind. Don’t bring the Double-Stuffed Oreo cookies!
Don’t bring the digital media equipment! It will confuse the message. People
will think that being a Christian means being tech-savvy and always eating
dessert for three meals a day. We have to speak in humility and show such in
favor of Jesus.

This last
week there was an article in an online paper that discussed a church on the
mainland that gives away a car every Sunday. The church is doing quite well
apparently. Many newcomers come every Sunday. Donations are through the roof as
well. Is this a lottery system in the guise of a church? Jesus never gave a car
away.

And yet, we
see something in our reading for this morning that might make us a bit
uncomfortable perhaps. Jesus feeds five thousand people through the miracle of
the fish and loaves. What should we think about that? Would people perhaps come
back to hear more from Jesus in order to be fed again? After all, in the gospel
of Mark (Chapter 6) we see Jesus feeding five thousand on one page, turn the
page over, and he is feeding another four thousand.

Yet in both
these cases, the people did not come to eat. They came to hear Jesus. In Mark 8
we read that they had been with Jesus for three days with nothing to eat! If
they had come there for the food, they would have long been out of there.

I remember
three years ago being told by the administration of the schools that the Bible
Clubs on campus could not serve any food to the kids who came to the club. The
pastors involved with Bible Club always have maintained that it was not fair to
the students that they should miss their lunch because of the meeting every
week. We provided snacks rather than see the kids go hungry to their next
class.

Some
parents got the idea that we were bribing the kids with sugary sweets and pizza
lunches. They thought that we were not genuine in our desire to minister to the
children and that the children themselves were being “seduced” into attendance.
What do you think happened when we stopped serving anything to eat all
together? Guess what? Bible Club continued with kids coming in, but then they
had to go to their next class hungry. Yet, still they did come in!And, they have never left without being
fed—at least spiritually!

So, it
seems that we have two different forms of mission work being lifted up by
example here. We see that the first kind is when we come together to be called
out together to bring people together in the name of Christ. The second form of
mission work is when people come together to hear the call to bring people
together in the name of Christ. Oh, these are actually the same. Going out to
be missionaries in the world and bringing the world together to hear Christ are
really the same idea.We just see it
from a different perspective.

This church
here is a mission church. It was built by the original missionaries on this
island who came here to give the Word of God to the local population. And, by
the definition I just gave, we are most definitely still that same mission
church. Nothing has really changed. WE are called together, empowered, and sent
just as the original twelve disciples were.

My favorite
verse in today’s scripture is verse 10. That is where we read how the disciples
all came back together after being sent all over the countryside. That is a
great but understated miracle. Surely the Spirit was protecting them all.

That is
also our understated miracle that every Sunday we get sent back out into the
world but are then called back here to be in Jesus’ presence once more, to be
fed, to be healed, and to hear His Word once more. Then, the mission continues.
And, yes, most of what happens in our mission in spreading the Good News
happens outside of the one hour on Sunday morning! You are not going to just
leave worship today. Today you will be called, empowered and sent.